Photo Booth Recorded Video Problem

Question

Level 1

6 points

Photo Booth Recorded Video Problem

I recently bought the imac 27-inch 2.7Ghz. I use Photo Booth to record clips of video from the iMac's internal camera. It has always worked fine for me, I open Photo Booth and switch to "Record a movie clip", then I press record and when I am done I press stop. The clip gets saved on the bottom and i can click it whenever, to review or watch my recorded clip with no problem. So it works as it should.

Now heres my issue, the other day was recording a very important clip on photo booth the same way as I would always do, it was about 15-20minutes long, the only thing is that when I finished recording it, I forgot to press "stop". I closed the window by pressing the "x" on the top left corner instead. Once I did that and had realized I had done that, I went back, open Photo Booth again to see if the clip had gotten saved and it didnt.

So then I went directly to the folder where all the movie clips get saved from Photo Booth and I found the file I had recorded there. I know this is the file I recorded because they get saved as "Movie on 2011-09-05 at 18.58" which shows the date and time. I know this is how movie clips on Photo Booth get saved.

All the other files or movie clips that I've done are in that folder, they show a preview image of the content I recorded for that clip, and the name. Now this last file does not show an image, it just shows the Quicktime icon with "MOVIE" in the bottom and the name of the file.

So now when I clip to open that file it does not open, it brings up a small warning window saying:

"The document 'Movie on 2011-09-05 at 18.58' could not be opened. The movie is not in a format that QuickTime Player understands."

So my problem is, how can I open that file to see the video clip?

I've tried many different ways to try to open it, with iMovie, Photo Booth, iTunes, QuickTime Player, etc and none work.

Doesn anyone know how I view that clip?

Also, when I click "Get Info" it shows that following info:

General:

Kind: QuickTime movie

Size: 203.4 MB on disk (203,414,621 bytes)

.

Name & Extension:

Movie on 2011-09-05 at 18.58.mov

.

If anyone can help thanks!

iMac

Posted on Sep 11, 2011 6:18 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 12, 2011 2:07 PM in response to fabian8a

Hi,

I would try opening it in iMovie, both the newer version with the Hollywood Star type icon and the older HD version if you have it.

I would guess that the file needs to have start and end markers and that it missing the end marker.

I would also ask in this Community where the guys and gals who know about getting odd things imported in to iMovie know how to achieve things

10:07 PM Monday; September 12, 2011

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

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Answer 2

jvaldez

Level 1

0 points

Sep 13, 2011 1:08 PM in response to fabian8a

I'm having the same problem with one file.. Hope someone can figure this one out.

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Answer 3

Sep 13, 2011 1:18 PM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Hi,

As jvaldez has joined this thread and that I think the iMovie Regular Posters may know more about how to fix this I have asked that the thread be moved to the iMovie Communitiy.

9:18 PM Tuesday; September 13, 2011

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

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Answer 4

CMCSK

Level 6

11,452 points

Sep 13, 2011 1:19 PM in response to jvaldez

jvaldez wrote:

I'm having the same problem with one file.. Hope someone can figure this one out.

Read the suggestion above your post!

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Answer 5

Sep 13, 2011 2:25 PM in response to CMCSK

Hi CMCSK,

I see this post has now been moved. (Thanks Hosts).

Were you referring to posting in iMovie (where this Thread is now) or to the suggestion to open it in iMovie ?

I was presuming that iMovie might cope better with an incomplete file.

But also wondering that there might be some additional trick that was needed ??

10:24 PM Tuesday; September 13, 2011

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Reply

Answer 6

CMCSK

Level 6

11,452 points

Sep 13, 2011 3:05 PM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Were you referring to posting in iMovie (where this Thread is now) or to the suggestion to open it in iMovie ?

Both

But also wondering that there might be some additional trick that was needed ??

The op can try opening in VLC which can open just about anything you throw at it. RealPlayer should be able to open.

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Answer 7

jvaldez

Level 1

0 points

Sep 13, 2011 5:15 PM in response to CMCSK

The vid has no diminsion or duration , i was recording with photo booth but did not stop the recording and someone closed my macbook pro, now it's a .mov file but not sure if there's a way to fix it.

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Answer 8

Sep 14, 2011 2:07 AM in response to fabian8a

I've tackled incomplete video file problems myself, but since it's not happened that often I've not really got a solution per se. When it has happened I've generally tried the 'try everything' approach first by trying to open it with various Applications, including mpegstreamclip, VLC, Handbrake, iVI Pro and Quicktime 7, but the likelihood is it's corrupt, although this has worked occasionally.

As I've never had any important video become damaged like this, when the 'try everthing' approach hasn't worked I've trashed the files I've had damaged. I do have a fairly large amount of video related applications available to me.

As the video IS important, they may want to look on the Internet for video repair software, but as to which I can't help as I've never had the need to look for any.

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Answer 9

EZ Jim

Level 7

22,590 points

Sep 14, 2011 10:26 AM in response to fabian8a

http://discussions.apple.com/thread/2390217?answerId=11329443022#11329443022

For next time you need to make important video, consider that, as explained in

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/27044.html

Photo Booth is a basic, fun, app. It seems to have more limited capability and reliability than iMovie. Therefore, I use Photo Booth only for "fun" video clips that are not of major importance.

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Answer 10

Sep 14, 2011 12:00 PM in response to EZ Jim

(Welcome Back EZ Jim)

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Answer 11

fabian8a Author

Level 1

6 points

Sep 14, 2011 5:05 PM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Hello Ralph and thanks. Yes I already tried opening the file with iMovie, Quicktime Player, HandBrake, Photo Booth, and iTunes but no luck.

I think like you said, since "stop" wasnt pressed, it is missing the end marker or something like that. I am just trying to see if anyone else like me and jvaldez has had the same problem and has found a way to still be able to play the clip with a program or something.

Or if anyone can help, you can make a clip like ours and see if you can figure it out how to open it. Just go to photo booth and make a video clip but dont stop the clip, just close the window and u will get a file like the one we got. Then see if you can figure out a way to open it.

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Answer 12

fabian8a Author

Level 1

6 points

Sep 14, 2011 5:29 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Hello Winsoton and thanks for your reply. I also tried to open it with various programs I have, iMovie, Quicktime, HandBrake, iTunes, no luck 😟

As to what EZ Jim said, yes Photo Booth is a basic, fun app. and one should not rely on it to record important clips on it but its not that I chose to record an important clip there, just that it coincidently started as a fun clip but ended up being important after. Kinda like coincidently capturing video footage of a UFO with your cheap camera phone one day you were recoding a nice sunset, in the end you wish you could of had a HD professional video camera instead of your phone lol. Not that I caught UFO's on tape through my imac's Photo Booth lol. Just using it as an example to why the clip is important.

Anyhow, the issue here, so as to not get out of the subject by discussing why it is an impotant clip, is that I am trying to figure out if anyone has been able to open a file like that with any program, or knows a way to do it.

Anyhow, thanks for your guy's replies. Im still trying to figure it out how to open it.

If anyone finds out how to, let me and Jvaldez know, i think we are in the same situation, trying to open a .mov file that was recorded on Photo Booth without hitting the stop button in the end to end it, but rather closing the program.

- Fabian

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Answer 13

Sep 14, 2011 7:35 PM in response to fabian8a

If you read EZJim's reply, he gave you the name of a company on the web that may be able to restore your files, at a cost. Folow the first link.

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Answer 14

EZ Jim

Level 7

22,590 points

Sep 15, 2011 8:58 AM in response to fabian8a

fabian8a wrote:

... If anyone finds out how to, let me and Jvaldez know ...

Damaged QuickTime (QT) & movie file recovery service (if recovery or repair is possible):

http://www.aeroquartet.com/movierepair/repair.html

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Answer 15

Sep 15, 2011 11:21 AM in response to fabian8a

Hi,

I see my Welcome Back to EZ Jim may have distracted from his Link to another thread for a possible answer to this.

I see that he has posted again with the info directly and that AppleMan1958 also refers to the new Post by EZ Jim.

I know that some of the Regular Posters who have gained enough points for Access to the Lounge Community know or are more likely to know about how to solve this so I Posted a Link to this thread there.

Some of those have now replied here.

The most common answer seems to be try VLC

EZ Jim's Link looks the most promising though (even though it costs eventually)

7:21 PM Thursday; September 15, 2011

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Reply